What Capital Punishment Really Is

The father of one of the Boston bombing victims has it right.

"The punishment of the death penalty is nothing more than revenge."

The Death Penalty is Revenge, Not Healing: Father of OKC Victim on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Sentencing

Presidential Candidate Has a Message for Missouri, too

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made yet another statement on his political stances in his Democratic Party campaign for the presidency:

Bernie Sanders on the death penalty: The state shouldn't be in the business of killing people

Not since 1988 has a presidential candidate for a major political party declared themselves opposed to the death penalty. In announcing his run for the presidency, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has thrown down his gauntlet. During an appearance on “The Thom Hartmann Show” on May 1, a caller asked Sanders if he would end executions of the mentally ill. Sanders replied that he opposes all executions, offering a moral explanation for his position.

CALLER: Execution of the mentally ill, I think […] I’d be more inclined to vote for you if you were to sign an executive order to stop or make a stay on executions of the mentally ill. I think the right wing is actually using that subliminally so that we be afraid of them. […]

SANDERS: Let me just give you an answer that I suspect not everybody will agree with. I am against capital punishment in general. I understand, and certainly for people who are mentally incapacitated who don’t know what they’re doing or what’s happening to them—I think people have been executed who were not even aware of what was going on, and that’s not something that a civilized nation should be engaged in. But in general, this is what I think. Look, there are people who commit horrendous, horrendous, horrendous crimes: we all know that. And we are furious at them, we can’t understand their barbarity. But I think, as with so much violence in this world today, I just don’t think the state itself, whether it’s the state government or federal government, should be in the business of killing people. So when you have people who have done terrible, terrible things they’re gonna spend the rest of their lives in jail, and that’s a pretty harsh punishment. But I’m against capital punishment.

It would be nice if all the Missouri Libertarians and "small government" Right Wingers and even the people who claim to be Christians would all stand up and take this same stance.

It would be the right thing to do.

Missouri in the national--and international--news yesterday

Yes, we were:

Missouri Gov. Calls Off Execution Using Experimental Drug

(Photo: AP)

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced Friday that he is calling off a planned execution using the drug Propofol in the wake of threats from the European Union that the 27 country bloc will scrap exports of the drug altogether if it is used for lethal injection, the AP reports.

Nixon is a fervent death penalty supporter who saw 59 men executed during his tenure as attorney general in the state. Missouri been had slated to become the first state to use the drug in an execution October 23, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The governor's announcement comes a day after German drug manufacturer Fresenius Kabi confirmed that it halted all shipments of the drug Propofol to a U.S.-based distributor after 20 vials were sent to Missouri for execution of prisoners on death row, Reuters reports. Shipments of the drug to Louisiana-based distributor Morris & Dickson were suspended from November 2012 to March 2013, the company stated.

The EU has banned the death penalty, as well as the export of drugs for use in lethal injections. The company purportedly halted shipments over concerns that the EU would place an all-out ban on exports of Propofol if it is used in executions.

A majority of Propofol is produced in Europe, and the manufacturer says the drug is administered approximately 50 million times a year for surgical procedures in the United States.

Nearly two dozen Missouri death row inmates had filed a lawsuit over concerns that injection with an experimental drug would cause horrific pain and suffering.
______________________________________________________

Once again, our country, the good old US of A is on the wrong side of an issue and the rest of the world has to correct us.

The latest on the California death penalty and Catholic silence

Court ruling may stall California execution (CNN) -- A federal appeals court has ordered a judge to rethink a ruling that would have led to the execution of a California inmate. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, released late Monday night, says a U.S. District Court must now set a hearing to determine the fate of death row inmate Albert Greenwood Brown. Back to me: Silence, still, from Catholics in the area and the Catholic Church, more generally. Link to original post: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/28/california.execution/index.html?hpt=Sbin

At least Gov. Schwarzenegger "respects life"

From The New York Times this morning: Governor Postpones Execution in California SAN FRANCISCO — With the clock ticking and uncertainties — both legal and pharmaceutical — hovering, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a temporary last-minute reprieve on Monday in what would be California’s first execution in more than four years. Still no word, either, that I can see or hear, out of anyone in the Catholic Church on the inhumanity of capital punishment. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28execute.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

Catholic Church doesn't really "Respect Life" after all, it seems

Last week, as I wrote earlier, a 41 year old woman with a tested IQ of 72--one Teresa Lewis--was executed by capital punishment and it seems the Catholic Church was nearly completely silent on her case. This week, another inmate is set to be executed in California--he "gets" to choose his method of death, too, bizarrely enough--and again, it seems the Catholic Church is utterly quiet, in spite of their "Respect Life" campaign. I don't get it. Apparently they only "Respect Some Life" and not all? Is that it? Can someone explain this to me because I don't get it. I assume, maybe, they don't want to upset their followers on this subject because they want to be all "right wing" and punishment or something but it surely seems like a big, gaping hypocrisy to a lot of us out here. I should think there would be a huge contingency of people fighting for now this man to not be put to death but no such brouhaha from the Catholics, to date, it seems. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/us/24execute.html?ref=capital_punishment; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/us/25execute.html?_r=1&ref=capital_punishment; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27execute.html?_r=1&ref=capital_punishment

Gov. Bob McDonnell and the silent Catholics: Where were you on this one?

It's truly a sad, sad day for Virginians, whether they agree or not. But it's also the same type day for Americans. Really. Executing a woman--Teresa Lewis--with an IQ of 72 for a murder she didn't do but was accused of "masterminding". The Governor of Virginia should be ashamed of himself in my eyes. And the Supreme Court, for that matter. Go to The New York Times link below and see the woman's picture and read the story if you haven't already. Ask yourself, what did Virginia have to gain by putting this woman to death? Would not have life in prison served as a much more appropriate punishment? The men who actually pulled the trigger on her husband and step-son are serving life in prison and again, one of these men actually shot the victim. And then, where was the Catholic outrage on this execution? I would have hoped every Priest, Bishop and Cardinal, worldwide, and the Pope himself raised their voices in dissent on this. I don't think they did. And if they didn't up to now, I hope they speak up after the fact. What happened to their "life is sacred" mantra they're always spouting? My point is that we should all cry out on this one. As it happens, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who couldn't find it in his heart, mind or soul to stay this woman's sentence is, apparently, hypocritically, Catholic. Shouldn't Gov. McDonnell be refused "the sacrament", the way they refuse it for divorcee's? I looked today on "The Catholic Key", too, and there is no mention of this story. This is truly pitiful. Really shameful. Pathetic. We all need to be far better than this. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/us/24execute.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McDonnell